Jochebed

Lord make me like Jochebed. 

I reread the story of Moses’ childhood in my BSF notes this morning and I was struck by this thought: God’s way of doing things is never my way of doing things.  God’s plan to take this child (Moses) from his monther (Jochebed) and have him raised by another person seems counter to me.  I hear myself saying, ‘this cannot be God’s plan, no way.’  But, since I have the advantage of seeing this entire plan unfold, I accept it…in this case…and agree that it is the best plan.

 

If, however, I had been the one asked to give my son to my oppressor, would I have done it?  Would I have been able to give up my baby, get him back, raise him until he was four or five and then give him to Pharoah?  Pharoah!  Maybe?  Let’s suppose I did.  Then I would have watched as he became powerful in all the ways of the world.  I would have watched as he murdered someone and finally as he fled Egypt all together.  I would have been tempted to think that God was no longer in control or not answering my prayers for my son, or at the very least, that my son had screwed up God’s plan for his life.  I, as that mother, would have had to wait 80 years to see that plan unfold.  80 years of prayers, 80 years of waiting, 80 years of trusting!

 

Only after those 80 years passed would I have seen the necessity of my son being raised in Pharoah’s palace, in it requiring murder to get him to flee, and it requiring another 40 years in a desert to make him into a man who could talk to God face-to-face, like one man talks to another.  Only then would I have seen how all the circumstances – together, as a whole – were all required to make a leader capable of standing up to Pharoah (“god on earth”), talking to and obeying the real God, and miraculously leading more than 2 million people out of slavery and into the Promised Land.  A task of this magnitude would require equally great preparation. 

So, the question I asked myself today is: could I wait 80 years and still trust God?  Could I work in a field as a slave for 80 years while I waited for God to work out his plan to save me?  In my petty circumstances, I need to take a lesson from Jochebed.  God’s way of doing things in my life may not be the way I would do them, but I am best off to choose to trust Him.  I can trust him, but will I?  Will I choose to trust God with me, my future, my children and their future?  Just like Jochebed, my baby was taken from me, only to be given back to raise.  Just like Jochebed, I find myself in circumstances I never thought possible or necessary. Just like Jochebed, I find myself waiting for God.  But, just like Jochebed, will I trust Him?  In the long run?  Over the long haul?  Will I stop trying to think, analyze, and figure out exactly what God is doing in this moment, to know its purpose? Will I simply trust and choose to live in the peace of mind that comes from knowing He has a great plan and all of this is necessary for the completion of it?  Will I hang in there and trust that it will be good?  Will I choose to move along gracefully with it?  This morning, I choose to keep on walking – with God, in His plan – through this.  And if I just keep walking, I have a great hope that someday I will see something miraculous, just like Jochebed!

New House

Okay, well it only took a week but we finally got internet at our new house. We are mostly moved in but not quite. We still have quite a few boxes around and some of our stuff is still in the shed. Why is it taking so long? Well, we didn't just decide to move into a new house. We decided to take on a horse boarding business, move into a house, keep trying to get work done on the old house, start homeschooling through the district (which means no choice about starting date), start M's new job, AND do it all at the same time while my parents are in Hawaii and cannot help.

Well, before the chaos, K finished her 100 book chart. She is really reading well! We are going to get a new curriculum for her language arts, one that will hopefully challenge her. I have been using the curriculum they gave me for K to teach Emily. She is very excited to have one day a week where she goes in to a classroom for school. This starts next week.

Poor Sammy.  When we were moving he would try to find anything that belonged to the girls and sleep on it.  On this day he found Rarity.

The girls are adjusting well.  They had a very rough first three nights but they worked through it and now feel happy and safe.  Recently they have gotten into wearing Dad's shirts for pjs.

Well, no pics of the inside of our house yet.  We are still in chaos and the house is pretty old - the bones are great and the layout is nice but we still have popcorn ceilings and gold fixtures.  The plumbing and windows, etc all need to be redone so all of that soon enough.  We bought house for its outdoor appeal.  These pics will be hard to tell where you are but the house is on the top of the hill and everything moves down from there.  In this one, our pool is on your right and we are looking down the hill toward the barn (we have five acres).  This will some day be grass with a fence and treehouse, our backyard.

The barn holds four horses and the tack rooms plus a groom's quarters and below that is the stable with four more horses.  Behind the stable is the round pen and down to the right is the arena (a large fenced area to let the horses run, play or train).  Behind the trailers is a small corral that holds two horses.

This is looking from our deck and down our driveway.  The horses on the right are in the 'pasture'.  Yes, it is barren and dry - trees and dirt, but that is the type of land we have here.  Down below you can see the right side of the arena.  It is a well laid out ranch and we are enjoying it, though it is a lot of work getting up to speed on the horses.  I have been mucking stalls, learning about hay, barns and horses, and today leading horses out to play...we shall see how that goes.  :-)  It has been crazy to say the least.  

This is by far the best feature of the house and our favorite.  Apparently when we trim the tress down lower we will be able to see the entire valley floor before those mountains in the distance.

We have swum every day since we moved in, both with friends and by ourselves.

Well, I have to go clean my parent's house before they get here and pick up shavings at tractor supply before the plumber gets here - gotta go!  Have a great day!